Great Wolf Lodge---

There was a group of about 50 of us who headed south for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge. The girls had a great time with there friends. We did make them ride with us a time or two but most of the time they were hanging out. Kirk and I enjoyed the hot tub but it wasn't as relaxing with lots of little ones splashing! We wished there was an adult only hot tub. The girls would like to plan to return, I said that would be fun, but we'd have to save some money so we could stay two nights since it is over 3.5 hours away, and that was a long drive home for Kirk.

Up up up they go......
My camera broke a while back, so I am using Emily's until I can save up enough money to purchase a Canon Rebel, which will be about a year. Some how were only ended up with two pictures of the whole trip, Kirk didn't get any video either, we are lame!

Kelly made the cut----

This is her relay team. Olivia is on the left of Kelly, she is a good friend, she is only 8 and is just as fast as Kelly or faster! She is one to keep an eye on! Morissa and Joey are fabulous swimmers, both have been swimming since they were 5 years old! They earned two first places, and 4 second places in this meet.

This is right after Kelly made a qualifying time for the Long Course Meters State meet this summer. Instead of sitting around and doing nothing she will be able to swim a few individual events and maybe even a few relays, not sure about the relays, time will tell on those.

Super swimmmer!

Super swimmers---- last weekend

Kelly swam very well, she earned third place for 9 year old girls, she won each heat she swam in. The fastskin she has on it one we got from USA Swimming for $1! The bad thing is that 13 and under starting May 1st can only wear suits that go to their knees, not the full legs like in this picture. Emily took first place over all for the 11-12 year old girls last weekend, and won every event except the 50 Breast. Every time a swimmer won her heat she received a paint stick! It was the Paintermans colorful swim meet. This is her new (to her) speedo fastskin, we bought it on Ebay for $32, they usually run in the $100 range, that is what she would really like a new one but Kirk and I can't justify that kind of money for a swim suit. Maybe when she is in high school, until then she can get used ones off Ebay!

David + Kelly = Silly

I am not sure about their costumes, but they sure did have a great time!

I forget how much fun Kelly and David have together.... Kelly likes attending family functions, but she can't wait to attend if David is going to be there, they have so much fun together! He missed Easter and Kelly was at a loss, she tolerates Riley, but she enjoys being with David!

David is certainly one who can be as big of a ham bone as Kelly!

Lexy is S-i-x-t-e-e-n---- where did the time go?

We were out of town on Lexy's birthday so Gma was kind enough to make dinner for the entire family on Monday to celebrate. These are the typical photos I get of Lexy, she is turning her head as soon as she sees me with the camera.

Lexy took my camera so she could post what a "normal" 16 years old room looks like, you can click on the picture to get better details.

Now when there is a family birthday Riley gets a little mixed up and thinks the party and cake are all for her!!!! She got upset when we had Lexy blow out the candles. Lexy after she blew out the candles.... there are many candles missing, but this was one of the only pictures without a hand or two reaching in for a candle!

Riley is three and a half... 4.12.08

On Easter Sunday Riley officially turned 3 1/2 years old. She is such a funny little girl, I enjoy taking photos of her! I think that she ate more chocolate than anyone else that Sunday!

Easter... kind of

So.... some how it happened that we lost all the photos on Easter!!!! That is part of the down side of digital, one slip of a button and they are all gone! So after we lost all the photos we took some to make up for the lost ones.... So what you are going to see is after thought photos!

Emily and Lex rode the scooter for a long while with Riley chasing after them. Lexy had a bad accident with Rex the-wonder-dog and had to take Aleve and put her ankle on up and on ice!

Kirk found the $20 egg for the first time, Lexy was the other big winner, she found the $10, $5 and $9.50 in quarters, so she was the big over all money winner. I found NO money eggs, so I was the big loser so Dad gave me a buck!

Dying of the Eggs....

This is something that the girls always look forward to, dying the eggs at the grandparents house, Gma and Gpa have really given the girls somethings to look forward to every year. This happens to be one of the favorite things, beside the actual hunt of course.

If we only knew what he was thinking!

It is funny to think that at almost 16 Lexy still loves hanging out with her Gpa and she still really enjoys coloring the eggs.

So there it is folks, another year of coloring the eggs, with Gma and Gpa, what a blessing to have them around on a regular basis. But on a sad note we sure did miss David, next year he better be there!

The Zoo.....

Katy was nice enough to take my girls to zoo during spring break, can you believe it did NOT rain on them. Of course the girls had an umbrella just in case!

Apparently the girls all enjoyed posing for the camera that day, they took over 100 photos, some of which are really good, others are of blurry animals.

This is a photo that Katy tried to get without much luck, some one's head or body part is aways missing!

Riley.....

Riley is often found on floor playing with our older toys. I am thankful that I had the girls save a few of them. One of the reasons Riley enjoys coming here is because we do have some fun toys.

Today Riley would NOT get out of her jammies. She was in a mood that it was NOT worth fighting for. So needless to say she got dropped off in jammies and picked up in jammies. She is a pretty girl!

S-L-E-E-P-O-V-E-R

I do NOT like sleepovers. My girls love sleepovers. I find that having girls over of the night usually wrecks two days. The first day is the day of the sleepover. My girls are so excited that they have a hard time getting things done, maybe it is like a little holiday to them since it doesn't happen very often. The day after the sleepover is shot. At the sleepover the girls tend to think that staying up past midnight is a grand thing and so fun. Of course they are some where unusual so they tend to wake up really early the next day as well. After the friends leave or my girls get home it is hard to get them to do much because they are so tired! Kelly only made it until 11:15 with the group, Rex the dog was snoring and her friend Ella was the first to sleep so Kelly felt lonely at the end and climbed into her own bed for a great night sleep!

Spring Break Fun.....

Who doesn't love the game twister.... this game was played with two mats since there were 9 girls playing. I didn't get the camera out soon enough! I know they had a great time!

Here are the girls lined up at the tables working on their scrapbooks, my goal for my girls is to have them complete a book every school year. Emily and Kelly each completed up to February of 2009 (starting with September 2008). There are two elements that must be on each page first the date, even if it just says the month and the year, I am okay with that, they also must journal something, even if it is just every ones name that is in the photo. I look back at some of the pictures of the girls and I am not sure what year the picture was taken.We took a few days off during spring break. One day I planned a girls day out, we took over 1000 square feet at the church and played indoor games, scrap booked and laughed. I was very thankful that it rained that day, it actually came down in buckets, not the usual NW rain where it just sprinkles.

Girls just want to have fun! All smiles!

This is before the last relay....

If some one told me 3 years ago that I would be spending at least 20 hours a month sitting in the stands watching swimming, I would have told them they had lost their minds. But fast forward until present time and here I am.... spending money and time by the water. I am thankful that Kelly and Emily they both have a sport for life, and they are both good swimmers.This is the view from my seat, right before the last of their relays. Emily swam first she is standing in front of the block, #5, in the yellow cap. Click on the photo if you want to see it bigger.

**** We have big plans today to spend time scrapbooking and playing boardgames with friends. I am hoping that it does rain, so we can get some stuff completed in doors! Spring break will be fun!